[beatpanda]

A lot of you misinterpreted what I said. I'm not necessarily talking about being outdoors.

For example — this summer, I was travelling between Skopje and Belgrade. After hitch hiking the whole day to Skopje, my phone was dead. I only had 30 minutes in the train station to charge my phone, and electricity was not available on the train.

By the time I got to Belgrade in the morning, my phone was dead again, and charging it would have meant hunting down a cafe with outlets and wasting two hours waiting for it to charge.

At that point, it was easier to just ask people where stuff was than screw around with my phone to get maps working.

"Passive location" apps like this just add to that stress, because it's just draining your battery faster for marginal benefit. "Be a painkiller, not a vitamin" and all that.

I think there's a huge opportunity in web-connected paper maps for relieving travel stress. I know that's what I needed this summer.

[olliwang]

It is always recommended to use a dedicated GPS logger in a long-distance trip. You won't experience these issues if you have one.